


I See the Best In You

by AlitheCambre



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, High School, Multi, Romance, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:06:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlitheCambre/pseuds/AlitheCambre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High School AU. Felicity has a 4.5 GPA, is taking two AP Classes and four CIS courses. She is in the running for MIT’s full ride scholarship but her biggest contender at her rivalry school, Isabel Rochev, has a 4.7 GPA. Felicity finds out that she can boost her grade to an incredible 5.0 if she enrolls in the tutoring program for extra credit. And who is her assigned student? Who else but billionaire Oliver Queen? This is just her luck.</p><p>The Sara/Oliver is there in the beginning but is relatively brief and the Barry/Felicity is one-sided. Also Laurel/Oliver is mentioned. The Underage thing is because Felicity is still 17 but she turns 18 soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Everything is Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Whew, i can not get enough of Olicity these days! He's another- I plan on this being about five or six chapters long and the chapters will probably get longer as I write more. Hope You Enjoy!

“Miss Smoak?” her guidance counselor was leaning in the doorway of the office, looking into the waiting area, right at her. Felicity smiled thinly and stood. Mr. Glau had always made her nervous- it was a thing left over from her childhood. She had been raised by nuns in an all girls orphanage. The first time she even had a male authority figure was in eighth grade and that had been her teacher, Mr. Rickards, who turned out to be having an affair with a high school student and was fired half-way through the year. Mr Glau was nice enough but he was also tall and quiet which unnerved her. “What brings you to my office today?” he asked, stepping aside so she could enter.

She sat down in the visitor’s chair and he sat across from her. “It’s about my scholarship in pending, sir.” She began. “I was wondering if there is an extra credit program that I could take to boost my GPA.” Mr. Glau sighed; this was not the first time she had asked for something like this. He seemed to deliberate for a moment before nodding.

“In fact we just received a new copy of the extracurricular booklet.”  He opened his desk drawer and took one out. “But Miss Smoak, are you sure?” he stared her down. “I don’t want to see you overworking yourself. You have already taken every extra credit course that I know of and you know you receive credit for one semester only.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Glau, I can manage my time just fine. Better than you would think. But thank you for your concern.” And with that she fairly snatched the booklet from him as she stood, slinging her canvas bag that held her books and prized laptop over her shoulder, and took her leave.

0o0o0o0o0o

Felicity supposed there were some perks to living in an orphanage at her age. For one, as soon as she turned 14 the nuns had taken pity on her and given her a room of her own. It was actually pretty awesome- the orphanage was in an abandoned cathedral. The main chapel had burned long ago and the nuns raised money to rebuild it, sectioning it into rooms for orphaned young girls to share. But Felicity was never adopted and she was too rough and introverted as a child to attract any attention so she was never fostered out either. One of the nuns had a particular soft spot for her, however. Her name was Sister Steele and she had a brother named Walter who lived in Starling city as well. She was a sweet old biddy who always sneaked Felicity some extra pie when she was young.

Eventually Sister Margaret Steele wore the other nuns down and they presented her with a room of her own for her fourteenth birthday. As to why it was so awesome (besides the fact that it was her _own room_ ) well, it was inside the abandoned clock tower. Sure she had to climb like three stories of winding stairs and another two up a ladder to get there but she didn’t care- it was quiet and secluded and had wi-fi and power. What more could she want for? She even managed to fashion a rope and basket pulley system to haul up the heavy stuff she couldn’t take up the ladder like her bed frame, mattress, nightstand, and mini-fridge. And it was high up. She could see over all of the Glades and at night the city skyline in the distance was breathtaking but not so bright that she couldn’t see the stars.

It was perfect. Today Felicity was sprawled out on her bed, flipping through the booklet that Mr. Glau had ‘given’ her and feeling bored. The damned counselor had been right- there wasn’t a single activity in this thing that had extra credit opportunities that she hadn’t taken. She was almost ready to give up when something caught her eye.

“New Tutoring Program, graciously funded by Moria Queen.” She read out loud. “For more information, contact us at…” she trailed off, reaching onto her nightstand for her phone and typing in the number. It rang a few times before someone picked up.

“Starling City High School Tutor Hotline, how may I help you?” the voice that answered was perky and friendly with a carefully open tone.

“Hello, I am Felicity Smoak I saw this number in the extracurricular booklet I got from my guidance counselor and I was wondering if you offer extra credit points?”

“Are you interested in being a tutor or in being tutored?”

“I want to be a tutor,” she clarified.

“We offer eighty-five extra credit points for tutors that take someone on for the whole semester. If your student improves their GPA then you are awarded 100 points instead of eighty-five.” Felicity’s breath caught. This was too perfect, there was no way Isabel Rochev would be able to match this, it would bring her GPA up to a perfect 5.0.

“How do I sign up?” she asked.

“Let me just ask a few questions and I’ll look you up on our database, if you meet our requirements then we’ll assign you an applicant and give you their email address or preferred method of contact and you can get started setting up study sessions.”

Felicity was asked for her full name, address (the woman seemed surprised she was living in the orphanage), phone number, email, and other personal and basic medical information. After about ten minutes the woman’s questions stopped.

“Alright,” the cheery voice informed her. “You seem to have exemplary grades and attendance records. I see no problems with signing you on as a tutor. Would you like me to assign you to a specific subject at all?” Felicity worried her lip in between her teeth for a moment before answering.

“Yes, please. If you don’t mind I would like to tutor in math.”

“Alright then,” her cheery voice came again. “That is lucky because we only have one student so far enrolled in that portion to be tutored- Mr. Oliver Queen. He lives not far from you- about five miles to the west and has stated that he did not mind picking up his tutor so as you do not drive this is a perfect match”

All the breath had left Felicity’s body when the name Oliver Queen was mentioned. She held no particular like for Oliver Queen but everyone knew who he was. Son of Starling City’s resident billionaires and heir to Queen Consolidated, Oliver was a well known ladies’ man but was apparently devoted to his girlfriend of two years- Sara Lance. There had been a school-wide drama fest when he had dumped the quarterback- Slade Wilson’s- ex-girlfriend (whom he had apparently ‘stolen; from Slade in the first place) Shado and began dating Laurel Lance. Another dram-filled gossip week had begun their sophomore year when it was revealed that Oliver had been cheating on Laurel with her little sister Sara and they were apparently in love.

Somehow the sister’s had gotten over it because Laurel was now dating Oliver’s best friend Tommy and the four often went out on double dates together. But Felicity had always sort of thought of the heir as a stuck of rich boy who never thought about others over himself. The funny thing was- they had been friends in nursery school. They used to chase each other at recess and play in the sandbox together. He had been her protector when the bullies ganged up on her because of her frizzy hair and ugly glasses.

People certainly change.

“Miss, are you still there? I am waiting for an answer,” the receptionist’s voice jolter her back to the present. For a moment, she deliberated with saying no and waiting to tutor someone else but she really needed the extra credit.

“Yes, Mr. Queen will be fine.” She managed, swallowing. “Great! Mr. Queen has stated his cell phone number is how he wishes to be contacted. Do you have a pen and paper?”

“Yes,” Felicity didn’t but that was so old fashioned, she instead pulled her tablet out from under her pillow and unlocked it, opening her contact book and creating a new entry.  The woman gave her the phone number and she typed it in, thanking her and hanging up. Tapping the share button next to the contact, she sighed as it was automatically uploaded into her phone contact list and hovered her finger over the call button.

Taking a deep breath, she pressed down and placed the phone up to her ear. It began ringing.

0o0o0o0o0o

“Ollie, what the hell is taking you so long?” Tommy yelled from the other room. “I want my fucking popcorn!” Oliver rolled his eyes and pulled back from Sara’s lips to shout back.

“Shut up Merlyn I burnt the first bag so I had to start another,” Tommy laughed in the other room.

“Bet you burnt it because you couldn’t tear your lips away from Sara’s!” he teased.

“Like you’re one to talk!” Sara shouted back. Oliver smiled and pecked her on the lips before easing himself out of her arms and backing out of her thighs. Sara pouted but hopped down from the counter and opened the fridge, grabbing a few beers and taking them into the other room where Laurel and Tommy were waiting to play the movie. Oliver checked on the popcorn and found that it was done so he grabbed it out and carefully opened the hot bag, pulling down a bowl and pouring it in before disposing of the bag.

He plopped down on the couch in between Sara and Tommy; Laurel curled up on Tommy’s lap with her feet draped over the arm rest. He shoveled a handful of buttery popcorn in his mouth before reaching over Sara for the remote, clicking the play button and turning the volume all the way up.

They watched their movie and talked, just hanging out and having fun. Each of them polished off a beer and they were content to watch _The Fifth Element_ there in Oliver’s living room on a Friday night for once, no parties to attend o family drama to deal with. It was perfect.

As soon as the over taxi chase scene began, however, Oliver felt his phone start buzzing in his pants. When he realized it wasn’t a test- that someone was actually _calling_ him- he figured it must be important so he excused himself from the room and went into the kitchen to answer it. He didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?” he answered warily.

“Hello is this Oliver?” it was a girl. She sounded stiff and formal and a bit… nervous?

“This is,”

“This is Felicity Smoak; I am calling about your application to the tutoring program for math. I have been assigned to you and would like to set up a study session at your leisure.”

“Felicity Smoak… hold on, aren’t you like the Valedictorian?”

“I am currently, yes,” she acknowledged briefly.

“Why are you tutoring then?”

“I don’t believe I am required to disclose that information. How does a session on Sunday at one sound? Do you have any preferences for the meeting place?”

“Uh yeah,” he was a bit taken aback by her cool dismissal of his question but as usual he let it roll off his shoulders. “Sunday at one is good. Can we do it at my house? I try and avoid the paps at all costs.”

“Your place is fine but I will require a ride.”

“Sure, I just need your address. I’ll send my chauffer to come and get you.” Felicity rattled off her address and he wrote it down on the empty grocery list notepad and ripped it off, pocketing it to give to Mr, Amell later. When he plopped down in his spot on the couch Sara whispered in his ear.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“It’s nothing,” he whispered back “I got a tutor, that’s all.”

“Good,” she grinned. “Maybe you won’t fail after all,”

“Maybe,” he smiled and kissed her temple and they went back to watching the movie in comfortable silence.


	2. Judging a Book By His Cover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity's first study session and her inner monologues :) (because Felicity always over-thinks things, doesn't she?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got bored studying for finals in school so I wrote this instead. Hope you Enjoy!

To say that Felicity was looking forward to Sunday was an overstatement. In fact, she was dreading it. If there was one thing she hated it was being judged by people who thought they were better than her. She decided to dress in a way that wouldn't make her look like a poor orphan. She figured the professional pencil skirt and blazer that she wore to church was good enough. She forwent the nylons and heels, instead pulling on some wedges and pulling her hair up into her usual ponytail.

She had contacts but she preferred her glasses for reading so she kept those. Lately she slung her canvas bag over her shoulder with her tablet and studying essentials in it and slid down the ladder, ignoring the rungs and just gripping the poles, landing firmly on the ground with bent knees. She dashed down the stairs two at a time and finally reached the ground level, snagging an apple before heading out to the front steps to wait for the chauffer.

She didn't have to wait long. Soon enough a shiny black Mercedes-Benz pulled up to the curb and a man in a suit climbed out, rushing around to open the back door for her. She thanked him and slid into the leather interior, not surprised to see a small bar and television inside as well as an internet cable and a power outlet. She sighed; it must be nice to live like the upper class. She had to work for months just to afford her laptop- granted it was high-end and she had torn it apart and rebuilt it better for herself but still. Too many people in this city were starving at night and Oliver Queen had a bar in his private car.

They pulled up to Queen Mansion shortly and once again Felicity shook her head in mild irritation. The grounds were meticulously kept up and groomed and the long drive was completely tarred and paved, a basketball court to the left and a tennis court to the right.

"Alice through the Looking Glass," she muttered to herself. The town car parked and Felicity waited patiently for the chauffer to open her door, which he did, and slid out gracefully. The click of heels caught her attention and she looked up to see none other than Moria Queen herself coming towards her from the main house.

"You must be Miss Smoak," the older woman greeted as she approached, extending her hand to shake. "I am Moria Queen and I am so glad you have agreed to tutor Oliver. I'm afraid he is struggling in his math courses his semester."

"It’s no trouble at all, Ms. Queen," Felicity plastered on her best smile and took the woman's hand, pleased with the firmness of the grip. They dropped their hands and Moria gestured to Felicity to follow her as she spoke.

"Oliver has been waiting for you in his study; I will take you there if you please." Felicity smiled again and followed the woman inside. The interior of the home was beautiful, the woodwork and carving exquisite and the ceilings lined with crystal chandeliers. Moria led her up the stairs and down the hall to the right, knocking on the third door on the left and calling out. "Oliver, your tutor is here!" A thumping sound and footsteps came from the other side of the oak door and the knob rattled before it opened revealing none other than Oliver Queen himself.

“Hey, thanks mom. Come on in,” he let the door fall open a bit wider in invitation. Felicity nodded at him before turning to his mother with a smile.

“Thank you for showing me the way, Ms. Queen.” Moria looked pleasantly surprised and smiled back.

“You are very welcome, Miss Smoak,”

“Please,” Felicity knew she was laying it on thick but she genuinely did like Moria. If there was one thing being raised by nuns taught her, it was how to respect authority figures. “Call me Felicity,”

“Only if you call me Moria,” the older woman gave a small laugh and Felicity nodded.

“Moria then, thank you again.”

“It was truly my pleasure, dear. But now I’ll leave you alone to study!” They exchanged another nod and Felicity swept past Oliver, casting a glance around the room before deciding to sit behind the desk on the chair obviously meant for the more powerful person in a meeting. It was clearly Oliver’s chair but she took it anyways, hoping this rich boy would realize early on that she was the one in charge here and she would accept no slacking.

“Have a seat, Oliver,” she pulled her laptop out of her bag and booted it up, pulling up the files she had requested copies of. To her surprise, the heir sat across from her with minimal hesitation, adjusting himself in the less-passed leather chair designed for clients or visitors. “I have been going over your files and I see that while you passed the quizzes on chapters one through eight, you began to struggled once the teacher advanced on to chapters nine and above.” She scanned the teacher’s comments one more time. “Now, Mr. Gregg has noted that you have been slightly less motivated and more distracted in class. I won’t ask for your personal reasons, all I ask is that you refrain from allowing your attention to wander during these sessions.”

“Uh… yeah,” Oliver looked a little taken aback when she paused to glance up at him for his reaction. She didn’t really blame him- it wasn’t like her to be this strict. But she had heard the stories and Oliver Queen was just another spoiled rich boy to her right now, an attractive one, but a pompous dick nonetheless.  She was afraid that is she gave him an inch of wiggle room then he would slack off as per his reputation and she wouldn’t get the GPA she needed to beat out _Isabel the Cheer Team Captain_.

“Good,” she nodded and looked back at her files. “Alright, we’ll start with Chapter Nine, Arithmetic or Geometric Functions. Section One- how to identify arithmetic functions and find their sums.” She closed her laptop and swapped it in her bag for her notebook and an Algebra II teacher’s book she had borrowed for this purpose. “Do you have your textbook?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s in the drawer on the left.” She opened the desk drawer and handed it to him along with the notebook that way lying on top of it. He grabbed a pencil from the cup on the desktop and poised to write. After an hour of reiterating sections one and two of chapter nine, she was satisfied that he grasped the concept.

“Good. Now, because you have enrolled in this tutoring program you are entitled to re-quizzes and retests for up to 75% of the original grade. You only have these retakes when I deem you ready. I will email Mr. Gregg that you are ready for the section one and section two re-quizzes; do you have some free time in the next few days?”

“I’m free tomorrow after school,” he stated. She nodded and jotted that down in the margins of her notebook. “Alright, I will let him know. And on the subject of scheduling things, when can you make time for our next session?”

“I suppose I could do it Thursday? Maybe we could do this regularly every Sunday at one and Thursday at six?” he phrased it like a question and she thought it over.

“That will be fine. I will, of course, need a ride here and back every time.”

“Not a problem.” He grinned and it was such a warm expression that she was taken aback and had to fight not to return it.

When she left the Queen Mansion a little later, she felt a little guilty. She had been strict and cold and more than a little harsh at times. Of course, she never snapped at him for asking questions but her explanations had lacked her usual patience. Oliver had seemed nothing but nice the entire time despite this and not once had he stopped concentrating on his work.

Perhaps she had been too quick to judge. If there was something Sister Steele never stopped saying to her it was ‘never judge a book by its cover’. As the town car pulled up in front of her former cathedral home, she vowed that next time she would relax a bit. She helped the Sisters watch the little ones until dinner and then thanked them for the meal before making her way up to her room. A promised, she sent an email to Mr. Gregg about Oliver taking his re-quizzes before getting ready for bed and setting her alarm to giver herself enough time to shower in the morning and then going to sleep, strangely exhausted.

That was the first night she dreamed of Oliver Queen.


End file.
